MCU: 10 Fascinating Facts Behind Thor (2011)

2. Sam Raimi Almost Made Thor

Back when Sam Raimi was a rising star and before he had turned his hand to the Spider-Man movies that would ultimately catapult him into an entirely new dimension as a film-maker, Sam Raimi almost made a pre-MCU Thor movie.

Around 1991 - well before Marvel Studios had decided to focus on making their own films - Raimi teamed up with Stan Lee (who always harboured desires to play Odin on the big screen) to pitch an alternate version of Thor to Fox. Ridiculously, the studio passed on the idea believing that nobody would understand the character.

Not only that, but unthinkably, the studio claimed that the entire medium wouldn't suit films as Raimi told THR:

"After I did Darkman, Stan Lee called me and was like, "Hey, kid, I liked your movie." He took me out to lunch and said we should work together. I said I'd like to make a movie about Thor. We worked together writing treatments and took it to Fox and pitched it. And they said, "Absolutely no. Comic books don't make good movies." This was in 1991."